Cold Run Books

Cold Run Books presents...

"According to urban gang expert David Kennedy it takes relatively few thugs to begin utterly terrorizing a neighborhood—or, as Gary Stewart, John Amman, and their informants in Sierra Leone can testify, an entire country....Evocatively written and carefully researched." Fearless Reviews (read more...)

"When war ravaged the northern town of Fadugu, causing it to be abandoned and resettled multiple times over the years, many inhabitants reached out through letters to American and European friends....Stewart and Amman have skillfully integrated excerpts from letters they received with an historical narrative of the war." African Studies Review (read more...)

"Clearly and concisely written...
Recommended." Choice (read more...)

Meet the greedy politicians who hijacked a fledgling democracy, the rebels who brought them down, and the villagers who struggled to survive the country’s chaotic descent. Black Man’s Grave tells what happened to place children-turned-soldiers in jeopardy and why Sierra Leone’s diamonds acquired their bloody tinge.

Black Man’s Grave, the first book to seriously examine the causes and conduct of Sierra Leone’s horrific decade of civil war, portrays the small, northern village of Fadugu as its way of life collapses. Based on years of correspondence between villagers and the book’s authors, both former Peace Corps volunteers in Fadugu, Black Man’s Grave views the Revolutionary United Front through the eyes of those who bore the brunt of its attacks.

The cast includes Sierra Leone’s “big man,” Siaka Stevens; RUF leader Foday Sankoh, whose grandfatherly demeanor belied the viciousness with which he sought to impose his “revolution”; and one who aspired to the big man role, Charles Taylor from next-door Liberia. Taylor’s support for Sierra Leone’s rebel war expanded from initial hostility toward Stevens’s handpicked successor into a commercial venture that supplied arms in exchange for diamonds. In an offshoot of that unsavory trade, links between Sierra Leone’s diamonds and al Qaeda have been traced. The revelations of Black Man’s Grave help us understand the frustrations that simmer throughout much of the third world and threaten a peaceful future for all.

Black Man’s Grave is available at book stores and amazon.com

Cold Run Books is pleased to announce the addition of video to our web site. You can view the new Black Man's Grave trailer by clicking HERE or by clicking on the video tab at the bottom of the page.

With financial help from authors Gary Stewart and John Amman, Sierra Leone Village Partnerships and the people of Fadugu have just completed the construction of a new classroom building at the government-run primary school. Click HERE to view photos. For more about Sierra Leone Village Partnerships go to slvp.org.

Author Gary Stewart has contributed booklet notes for two new compilations of African music, Africa Boogaloo and The World is Shaking, from the UK label Honest Jons. For more information go to honestjons.com. Stewart's book on the history of Congolese pop music, Rumba on the River, has just gone into its second printing. More at versobooks.com and amazon.com.

The economic recession, high unemployment and mixed indications of impending recovery have contributed to the timeliness and increasing interest in author John Amman's book Surviving the New Economy. For more information go to paradigmpublishers.com and amazon.com

Now available in the UK. Black Man's Grave is now available in the UK through the kingdom's leading distributor, Gazelle Book Services. For information or to place an order phone +44(0)152468765 or visit www.gazellebooks.co.uk.